1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cash management slip and method of using said cash management slip for improving the efficiency of cash management within a casino. The present invention particularly relates to the system of documenting cash jackpots paid by gaming machines in a casino and the system of documenting cash used to fill gaming machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Definitions:
For the purposes of this application, a xe2x80x9ccasinoxe2x80x9d is any gaming establishment. A xe2x80x9cgaming machinexe2x80x9d is any mechanized game of chance, such as a slot machine, used for gaming purposes. A xe2x80x9cjackpotxe2x80x9d is money paid to a winning player of a gaming machine by the operator of a casino. xe2x80x9cFillingxe2x80x9d of a gaming machine is the placing of cash inside the gaming machine to be discharged to a winning player.
Gaming Machine Jackpot Security:
Casino cashiers disburse large amounts of cash, both in the form of jackpots paid to winning players and amounts disbursed to fill gaming machines. Elaborate security systems requiring concurrence of several persons and duplicate security checks have evolved to protect the casino from theft, particularly in the payment of jackpots and in the filling of gaming machines.
In a prior-art casino, a gaming machine transmits an electronic record of a jackpot directly to the casino computer system. If the amount of the jackpot is small, the gaming machine may pay cash directly to the winning player. If the amount of the jackpot is too large to be paid directly by the gaming machine, the casino computer system will cause a jackpot slip to be printed. The gaming machine attendant will collect the jackpot slip from the printer. The attendant, a supervisor and a security guard will all sign the jackpot slip, thereby attesting the proper operation of the gaming machine and that the gaming machine actually indicated that a jackpot should be paid.
The jackpot slip has two parts, both of which bear the same unique identifier. The unique identifier may comprise a sequence number. One portion of the jackpot slip (the xe2x80x9csecurity jackpot slipxe2x80x9d) is retained by the security guard. The security guard transports the security jackpot slip security portion to a collection location under the care of the casino security apparatus.
The attendant transports the second portion of the jackpot slip (xe2x80x9ccashier jackpot slipxe2x80x9d) to a cashier who accepts the cashier jackpot slip and either issues a check or cash to the attendant in the amount indicated by the cashier jackpot slip. The attendant then gives the check or cash to the winning player.
Gaming Machine Fill Security:
If a jackpot is adequately small, the jackpot may be paid to the winning player directly by the gaming machine. Periodically the money in the gaming machine must be replenished. The casino computer system monitors jackpots paid by the gaming machine and notes the need of the machine to be filled; alternatively, the gaming machine attendant may request that the machine be filled. The casino computer system will print a xe2x80x9cfill slipxe2x80x9d having two portions, both of which include a unique identifier. The unique identifier may comprise a sequence number.
The attendant takes the two portions of the fill slip to a cashier, who removes one part (the xe2x80x9ccashier fill slipxe2x80x9d) and provides the attendant with cash in the amount indicated by the cashier fill slip. The attendant then takes the second portion of the fill slip (xe2x80x9csecurity fill slipxe2x80x9d) and the cash to the gaming machine to be filled. The attendant, a supervisor and a security guard all sign the security fill slip, documenting that the attendant actually fills the gaming machine. The security guard then deposits the security fill slip security portion at a location under the control of the casino security apparatus.
Casino Accounting and Security Checks:
When the cashier accounts for the cash in his or her till, the cashier must match cash paid out with cashier jackpot slips and cashier fill slips in the till. This provides a first check against a cashier simply stealing from the till.
At the end of the gaming day, all of the cashier jackpot slips and security jackpot slips are collected from the cashiers and from casino security. The cashier jackpot and fill slips are matched to the security jackpot and fill slips. If a cashier jackpot slip or cashier fill slip does not match a corresponding security jackpot slip or security fill slip, the matter is investigated to determine the cause of the discrepancy. One possible cause of a discrepancy is fraud or theft.
The requirement for multiple approvals from different persons to document each transaction guards against fraud and secures employee accountability in the payment of jackpots and machine fill requests. The use of two-part fill and jackpot slips discourages a gaming machine attendant or cashier from printing false jackpot slips and thereby collecting false jackpots.
In the prior art, the task of matching security jackpot slips with cashier jackpot slips and the task of matching security fill slips with cashier fill slips is performed manually. Crews of casino employees sort each of the security jackpot slips, cashier jackpot slips, security fill slips and cashier fill slips. The crew of employees matches each slip with its counterpart and checks that the information on the corresponding slips is consistent and correct. If the crew determines that corresponding slips are not consistent, the matter is referred for investigation. The manual process of checking slips is time consuming, expensive and subject to operator error. The present invention speeds the job of checking the jackpot slips and fill slips by providing a bar code on each slip that is machine readable so that the paper slips can be matched electronically. All of the safeguards of the existing system are preserved, but the job of checking the slips is more accurate, faster and more economical.
This invention provides machine-readable codes applied to each security jackpot slip, cashier jackpot slip, security fill slip and cashier fill slip. The codes are adequately unique to allow each slip generated in a gaming day to be differentiated from every other slip generated during that day. A code may comprise a bar code imprinted on each slip. The bar codes may encode relevant information about the jackpot or fill transaction. The cash management slips may be printed using a printer that is specially programmed to receive a print command in any of a number of formats and to automatically reformat the cash management slips to include a bar code. The cash management slips of the present invention thereby may be implemented by connecting the specially programmed printer to an existing casino computer system without changing existing casino software.
The security fill slip, cashier fill slip, security jackpot slip and cashier jackpot slip of the present invention are used to prevent theft and fraud in the same manner and using the same procedures as the prior art. The present invention differs from the prior art in that at the end of the gaming day each bar code of each slip is optically scanned. The scanning of each slip creates a data file that is stored in the casino computer system. The casino computer system electronically compares the information encoded in the bar code on, say, a security jackpot slip with the corresponding cashier jackpot slip. Similarly, the casino computer system electronically compares the information encoded in the bar code of a security fill slip with the corresponding cashier fill slip. If the information encoded on the slips is consistent, the computer concludes that the transaction was properly recorded. If a slip is recorded for which no corresponding slip is found, or if the information on corresponding slips is not consistent, then the computer refers the matter for investigation by human operators.
The invention eliminates the laborious clerical task of matching and checking many different forms, with resulting savings in labor and improvements in accuracy and efficiency.
The foregoing and other advantages and features of this invention will appear from the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.